In brief, what’s happening at Penn—whether it’s across campus or around the world.
Penn Medicine researchers have developed a new targeted approach to prevent a toxicity seen in the sensory neurons of dorsal root ganglia after gene therapy to treat neurological disorders. It’s an important hurdle to clear, as the field works toward more safe and effective gene therapies for patients with disorders like spinal muscular atrophy.
FULL STORY AT Penn Medicine News →
Peter Fixler has been hired as the chief arborist at the Morris Arboretum, a position made possible by the McCausland Foundation and Janet and John Haas, who have combined forces to fully endow the Chief Arborist position. In doing so, they have chosen to honor Paul W. Meyer, who recently retired after 43 years of service, 27 of those as the F. Otto Haas Executive Director.
FULL STORY AT Almanac →
The Penn Libraries has purchased Southern Life, Slavery and the Civil War, consisting largely of collections documenting laws and labor practices underpinning the slave system in the South before and during the Civil War, but including material related to the Civil War. Along with laws, legal cases, petitions and correspondence with Attorneys General, these collections include records of industrial operations based on slave labor, Confederate and Union records, and manuscripts documenting the families and busine
FULL STORY AT Penn Libraries →
As part of the New Deal of the 1930s, one program administered by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and championed by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt created a network of residential camps for unemployed women, where thousands found respite between 1933 and 1937. Over the summer, PennPraxis sponsored a design fellowship to research and document the camps, resulting in the first comprehensive inventory of known camp sites and a public website.
FULL STORY AT Weitzman School of Design →
According to infectious disease expert Florence Momplaisir, spreading the word about HIV facts and possibilities could be a “game-changer.” A new $3.2 million, four-year federal grant to Momplaisir and her Penn colleagues funds research to explore how mixing community health workers into the clinical HIV therapy teams might boost efforts to reach and treat out-of-care individuals.
FULL STORY AT Leonard Davis Institute →
In a new case series report from the School of Nursing, researchers share common concerns and experiences as reported by three first-time, healthy mothers regarding the disruption of their birth plans and breastfeeding experiences.
FULL STORY AT Penn Nursing News →
Community immersion classes are central to teaching nursing students about social determinants of health. But what happens when on-site engagement is suspended due to a pandemic? To adhere to social distancing guidelines during the COVID-19 outbreak, the School of Nursing moved its “Addressing the Social Determinants of Health: Community Engagement Immersion” class from an in-person community health education course to a distance-learning experience.
FULL STORY AT Penn Nursing News →
Twice over the past six months, the Chester County Hospital’s Opioid Use Disorder Task Force partnered with Chester County Drug and Alcohol Services and Good Fellowship Ambulance & EMS Training Institute to host a public Zoom presentation and discussion about opioids, overdoses, Narcan, and local treatment resources.
FULL STORY AT Penn Medicine News →
The H. Nedwill Ramsey Professor in Electrical and Systems Engineering, Bioengineering and Materials Science and Engineering has been awarded the 2020 Isaac Newton Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics, the professional body and scholarly society for physics in the UK and Ireland.
FULL STORY AT Penn Engineering Today →
Increased stress and anxiety of the COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating sleep issues. That’s why many people rely on the low, static buzz of a sleep sound machine or smartphone application when they can’t sleep. White noise is not only purported to mask disruptive noises, but also to be a non-pharmacological approach for promoting sleep and improving its quality.
FULL STORY AT Penn Medicine News →
